Dreadlocks, Bob Marley and an unwanted haircut — those are the unlikely subjects of an opinion issued by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

A three-judge panel of the federal appeals court has devoted 11 pages to explaining why Omar Grayson, a former inmate of the Big Muddy Correctional Center in southern Illinois, can sue a prison officer who forced him to shear his thick, braided locks.

The opinion even includes a photograph of reggae superstar Marley, who died in 1981, to illustrate what dreadlocks look like.